United Nations weapons inspectors yesterday shared satellite images that suggest Iran may be cleaning up evidence of past nuclear weapons-related work, at a suspect military site inspectors have been seeking to visit. …

But Olli Heinonen, the IAEA's head of safeguards until two years ago, says it's hard to know for sure the nature of those activities.

"Without having actual access to Parchin, one cannot say much what is really happening there," says Mr. Heinonen, now at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in Cambridge, Ma.

"It is important that the IAEA has the access soon to the site to establish facts, but the Agency should, in my view, also think at the same time how to approach such confrontational topics without sacrificing the success of the mission," says Heinonen. …

It took no less than the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard to demonstrate that out of sight is, indeed, out of mind. Or, if you prefer a different cliché, that when the cat’s away, the mice will play.

“The evidence displays a strong connection between the spatial distribution of population and corruption: Isolated capital cities are associated with greater levels of corruption across U.S. states,” a study by the Kennedy School concludes. …

The authors, Filipe R. Campante of Harvard and Quoc-Anh Do of the school of economics at Singapore Management University, devised an intricate formula to measure corruption, press coverage, voter participation and delivery of government services. The less concentrated a state’s population is around the capital, they found, the more corruption and the less press coverage, voter participation in state elections and delivery of services.

“I think the way to interpret our results is that the isolation of Albany makes New York State particularly prone to corruption, so it should lead one to be especially vigilant with respect to corruption,” Professor Campante said. …

Regardless of the political affiliation or level of engagement of a person’s community, most people would be hard pressed to find someone unfamiliar with the name Sarah Palin. …

Joanne Bamberger…feels that her influence does exist, but will likely stay isolated to a small sect of the American populace. …

Barbara Kellerman , a James MacGregor Burns Lecturer in Leadership of the Kennedy School at Harvard University, agreed when she spoke with CBSDC.

“She remains attractive, sure – in every sense of the world – appealing to many people ideologically and personally,” she said. “But those people are increasingly very much in the minority, very much among the right wing of the Republican Party.” …

… (David) Axelrod…argued that Romney sold Massachusetts voters the same bill of goods he's peddling now -- that his private-sector expertise would make him an ideal chief executive of the state. But his record in office, Axelrod claimed, was "alarmingly weak."

Was Romney actually a terrible governor of Massachusetts, or was this all politics? Naturally, the reality is not as simple as either side would like to claim.

"I think there's really a Romney One and a Romney Two," said Marty Linsky, a lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School and former Republican state legislator. "Romney One really worked very hard to try to do what he thought was in the best interests of the commonwealth; Romney Two worked very hard to position himself to run for president of the United States." …

… If Greece was living beyond its means, Spain’s problem stems from a property boom that followed its entry to the EU. Northern Europeans escaping to the Mediterranean beaches fed an orgy of hotel and apartment building. Many of those developments are unfinished skeletons or on sale at foreclosure prices. The banks are loaded up with the consequences of that boom and bust.

Pierpaolo Barbieri , Ernest May Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center, says that "big, international banks like Santander and BVA are well diversified. Of the others, quite a few need capital -- but how much? That's the unknown and Bankia has undermined faith in financial reporting." …